Cost of Living

Martin and I took an Aramco shopping bus into town this morning to visit what passes for the local hardware store. We then hopped into a local taxi for a trip across town to one of the large grocery stores in Khobar--the meat and produce are much better in the Tamimi store than in the commissary on camp. Not just a little better but orders of magnitude better so it is well worth the trouble and time to make the trip. And then we took another shopping bus back to camp.

The shopping buses are provided by Aramco free of charge. They run fixed routes from camp to malls or shops in Khobar and back and they run a couple of times each morning and a couple of times each evening. It can be awkward shuttling large, bulky packages on and off the bus and sometimes standing around in the sun waiting for the bus (it was 97 degrees F here Wednesday afternoon) is just not good for some foods. But even with the limited routes and limited schedules, they are still the best way to get basic shopping done.

Martin and I both agree that it is not a surprise how quickly we came to realize that many things we thought we wanted or needed we could actually live quite well without. And how that was probably a good thing.

Still, we really do need to buy stuff now and then. I thought it might be fun to list the prices of some items I recently purchased. I converted everything to US dollars.

My second level French class. They are providing us with a textbook this time so the cost went up a bit. Still, 10 weeks of classes plus the book only cost me USD 133. My own class, DOG-101, will cost participants USD 53. I have no idea what my share of that is, but I gather it is a pittance, a token fee for my "community-mindedness"!

Propane cylinders for my gas grill. I buy small 14oz red cylinders which each last about 5-6 grilling events, perhaps 2-3 weeks each. Those cost me USD 6.80.

Gas for my car. There is a gas station on camp. Gas costs USD 0.12 per liter. My car only holds 35 L, or about 9.5 gallons. This afternoon it cost me USD 9.60 to fill up my car. I put gas in it about every 6-7 weeks.

I've decided it is time to begin experimenting with fermentation. I found an extremely simple recipe for ginger beer that uses sugar, fresh ginger, yeast, lemon juice, and can be made in a 20 L drinking water bottle. I bought two large bottles of water at the bulk store at the back of the commissary for a total of USD 11.73. I bought a kilo of fresh ginger for USD 2.10. I bought a container of yeast, the smallest I could find in the commissary, for USD 0.93. I bought a 2K bag of sugar for USD 2.10. And I bought 10 two-liter bottles of Coke for USD 1.00 each. Yes, that's right, ONE DOLLAR EACH. I don't drink soda so I poured it all out. After the initial fermentation in the big water bottle, you filter and pour the beer into the Coke bottles for final fermentation. The plastic bottles that real Coke comes in are strong enough to hold the pressure and can be reused for quite a long time (with proper sterilization). I've been told not to try to make beer with bottles holding the local soda varieties--they tend to explode.

Experiments abound. I began my experiment in making food for the dogs last weekend. I am working out various modifications to a meatloaf-style recipe I found on the internet. I made the first batch with ground beef. After feeding the end result for a week, I have discovered why some ingredients are needed and why some substitutions don't work so well. Fortunately, the dogs will eat just about anything. I've cut their kibble consumption by 50% and found that one batch of this recipe will make more than 2 weeks of dinner meals for them.

I purchased the ingredients for a second batch today. Approximately five pounds of ground lamb cost me USD 12.00. I bought a two-kilo bag of rice but I figured the cost comes out to USD 0.80 per batch. I bought a bag of pre-cut broccoli and cauliflower florets for USD 6.50 (they were imported so pricey). I bought 6 local brown eggs for USD 0.80. I bought one local sweet potato and two local brown potatoes for USD 2.00. I bought a hunk of fresh local squash for USD 1.50 and a package of little bitty local zuccini for USD 0.75. Then there are four carrots for USD 1.00, two apples for USD 0.50, frozen green beans and frozen spinach which come out to about USD 0.50 each per batch, and frozen blackberries for USD 0.50 per batch.

Let's say this averages out to USD 25.00 per batch. And let's say I make it 20 times a year so the annual cost is USD 500.

I had previously figured the dogs would go through 5 big bags of kibble a year, conservatively. At $50 per 40 lbs (I'm rounding here, bear with me), that is USD 250. Doesn't seem like a good deal, does it? Homemade is twice the cost of kibble--and I'm still feeding kibble, just less of it.

But I can't get good dog food here (the food sold in the vet clinic on camp, Royal Canin, lists first and third ingredients as corn--bleah). Either someone traveling to the US has to bring bags of kibble back in a suitcase or I have to have it shipped. And it might indeed cost me USD 200-300 to ship 200 lbs of dog food here. In the end, I may cave and do that anyway. But for now, I'll continue experimenting with homemade. It's fun and the dogs are of course quite willing to play along.